National selectors today recalled left-arm spinner Murali Kartik to strengthen
the struggling Indian bowling against Australia while keeping rest of the
15-member squad unchanged for the fourth and fifth cricket one-dayers.
The selectors, who met here, decided to include the 31-year-old Kartik in place
of burly spinner Ramesh Powar after the Railways bowler had an outstanding
county stint early this year.
Kartik was out of the Indian team for 19 months as he last
played for the country against Pakistan in February 2006.
He had lost his place in the team due to shoulder injury after which he went
to play for the Middlesex English county and emerged as the highest wicket-taker
in the last season.
The next two ODIs of the seven-match series will be played
on October 8 in Chandigarh and October 11 in Baroda.
The team for Twenty20 match to be played between India and
Australia at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai would be the same which won
the World Cup in South Africa.
However, Piyush Chawla, who is nursing an injury, has
not been included in the squad, BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah said.
ODI Team: MS Dhoni (Captain), Yuvraj Singh (Vice Captain),
Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Dinesh Kartik, Gautam Gambhir,
Robin Uttappa, Irfan Pathan, R P Singh, Rohit Sharma, Murali Kartik, Zaheer
Khan, S Sreesanth Harbhajan Singh.
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